Hello. I' trying to decide on which speaker sets to buy. I have listened a pair of Focal Chorus 714V and Monitor Audio RS6 and liked both. However I want other opinions to help me decide which speakers to choose. I want to build a 5.0 set. I allready have the receiver Onkyo TX SR-605 and now I need the speakers. Because I have a limited budget my options would be the following:
1) Monitor Audio RS6 (used for 6 months with 12 months of warranty still available) + MA RS LCR + other manufacturer rears like Focal Chorus SR 700 V or PSB Image B15 or MA BR FX (silver rears are too expensive for me)
2) Focal Chorus 714 V + Focal Chorus CC 700 V + Focal Chorus SR 700 V
I like to listen rock and pop music. I will also watch blu-rays so I wan't this speaker set to perform well in movies as well.
Please don't try to suggest other sets as these are my only options.
I'm a big fan of the Monitor Audio speakers but in this case with the AVR you listed and with an all Focal speaker set available I would say that the Focal's look like the way to go. Not to mention the Focal's are fine speakers as well...in fact some folks would prefer them.
The only thing I wonder about is the lack of a subwoofer. The 714s are very good speakers which thread a difficult line between an enjoyable listen and not over-egging anything. In their price range I think they're the best and I think they're better in many ways than their bigger brothers which simply try to take the same ideas a bit too far.
That said, although they give a very well balanced perspective, they don't plumb depths. I think that eventually you will probably want to add a subwoofer for surround duties - they're fine for music reproduction on their own (and probably better without a sub for that sinec you don't have to worry about integration).
Personally I prefer the Focals over the Monitor Audios since I find the MAs a bit sterile.
Thanks guys for your opinions. I have ordered the Focals and they will ship in about 2 weeks. I'm living in Romania by the way. The sub will come in the next two months when i'll get the $. By the way I have the chance to swap my Onkyo TX-SR605 with a Yamaha RX-V663 receiver. Should I do it?
Or maybe with a Maranz SR-5002. Will l I be able to play SACD and DTS-HD/True-HD tracks trough HDMI cable from a PS3 by using Marantz SR-5002? And I will I be able to upconvert component 480i/480p signal to 720p/1080i trough hdmi? I know that the onkyo 606 has this features, but I don't know about the Marantz SR-5002 model.
The PS3 cannot send TrueHD or Master Audio down the HDMI pipe. So you have to set the PS3's HDMI audio setting to send Uncompressed PCM. This means that your Onkyo will not show 'TrueHD' or DTS Master Audio' on its screen, since the PS3 will not send them to it.
The PS3's Uncompressed PCM output is exactly the same as you get when you decode TrueHD or DTS Master Audio, so you will not lose quality by doing this provided you use a good HDMI cable.
The Onkyo is a good machine. There seems little reason to change to the Marantz or the Yamaha. They all have the same facilities, and none of them will show you TrueHD or Master Audio when attached to a PS3 (so far). In the future it's possible that the PS3 will be able to bitstream those formats after a software update. At the moment, it cannot do it.
NB: the PS3 offers two options in its HDMI Audio settings - 'Bitstream' and 'Uncompressed PCM'. If you choose Bitstream, you will still get sound! This is because it uses the CORE Dolby Digital or DTS stream instead of the full Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio stream. Most Blu-ray discs are mastered with either TrueHD or DTS Master Audio but the actual quality is often not much better than the standard things we get on DVD so you may not perceive a difference, unless you have the PS3 set to Uncompressed PCM and you have a Blu-ray disc that has a high quality soundtrack on it (and you cannot tell by looking at the box most of the time).
So to summarize: To make the best of the options, set the PS3 HDMI Audio options to Uncompressed PCM. Do not expect to see TrueHD or Master Audio on the Onkyo for this reason.
On the subject of video, yes, the Onkyo will upconvert composite, S-Video and component to 720p/1080i if you wish. You need to set the HDMI Monitor setting to Yes to do this. However, this is not necessarily the best way to get the best picture! If your TV has a non-format standard panel resolution it will need to re-scale whatever it receives to fit onto the panel. So for example, most Pioneer screens have been 768 lines deep. DVD is 480 lines, HD is 720p or 1080i. None of them are 768, so the Pioneer ALWAYS re-scales to fit the screen. This means that the best thing to do in the case of the Pioneer is to check out what the best result is by testing a few discs and switching between scale. Many DVD players allow you to set an Auto setting and they negotiate with the screen to see what it 'wants'. The Pioneer asks for what is the best picture to rescale to 768 lines and usually this gives the best result. So check your screen before you decide on what to do.
As others have mentioned, keep Onkyo for Focals. I have Focal 726V , which are similar to 714V , just have more low frequency response to compensate for the sub-woofer that I don't have.
I drive them with NAD-T775, excellent receiver but also cost $2500. I had old yamaha and I tried Focals with them and they don't go very well for sure, sounds too bright and too ordinary (less clarity, overshadowed by high freq.). As soon as I hook them up with NAD they become "alive".
